Boston Museum of Science

From Courtney:

The Boston Museum of Science was always my favorite place to go when I was younger. It still is, in fact. I love all the interactive exhibits they have there; there’s always something new to explore and discover. I did not know however, how fully connected the museum has become with social media. When assigned this project, I went to explore their website and found the Museum of Science has accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Pinterest, Flickr, Instagram, and Linkedin. Naturally, I explored each site in order to find out how the Science Museum uses each of these methods to reach the public.

            The Facebook page is really quite informative. The cover photo on the page currently shows off the movie playing at the museum, and in the past has displayed special exhibits or fun pictures of the city. The ‘About’ section details the address, contact info, and hours of the museum. Based on the timeline, the museum updates posts a few times a day. Many of these posts are reminders about special exhibits, but many of them also display interesting links for followers or contests members can enter. Each post is accompanied by an eye-catching picture and is very informative to the subject matter in the post. Their Facebook page currently has 63,890 likes, which is a solid reassurance that their messages are reaching a wide population.

            Twitter is another resource the Museum of Science uses to get information out to the public. Based on what is happening at the time, there seem to be one to four updates a day. For example, during the World Series, the Museum of Science gave reminders of changed hours. They even created something called the dinoseries where several science museums across the country entered in their own sort of baseball game. Long story short, there was a lot of good-natured smack talk, especially when it came to the T Rex in the STL Science Center and the question of how he could even swing a bat. They have almost 20,000 followers, not quite as much as on Facebook but still quite a respectable number.

            The Youtube account of the Museum of Science is a bit less exciting than dinosaurs playing baseball, but still has some interesting factors to it. On their page on Youtube, they have lectures that take place at the museum, some reaching almost two hours long and on various topics. There are also videos about the planetarium and movie trailers for what is playing in the IMAX. They have 3,225 subscribers, not nearly as much as Facebook or Twitter. I can probably attest that to the fact that few people have two hours to burn watching somewhat uninteresting lectures put on by professionals in their fields.

            Flickr is a site I am not as familiar with, but I think that having uploaded 112 photos since 2008 is probably not that wonderful. The pictures are mostly from what appears to be functions put on by the museum, but do not offer much more information other than pictures of kids in colored shirts. If a future patron is looking for something about the museum itself, they are unlikely to find it here.

            Instagram is another social media site I am not familiar with, but the Museum of Science seems to have utilized this much more than Flickr. Not only do they have pictures of functions that take place in the museum, but also some of exhibits, animals, relevant posters, and even some old photos of when the museum was first starting. This has 516 followers, but these photographs are also connected through Twitter and Facebook which open them up to more views.

            The museum’s use of Pinterest is my personal favorite of their social media sites. There are seventeen boards, each dedicated to a certain topic. They have even made a board specifically for the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the museum currently. As is the way of Pinterest, these pins lead to different sites allowing the user to find out how exactly to make a Dino hat, an indoor tornado, or what sort of favors to have at a wedding hosted by the museum. There are not many pins on each board, but they do have 683 followers.

            LinkedIn is the final use of social media displayed on the Museum of Science website. On the front page of this site is the mission statement of the museum, the type of industry it is, and openings in the museum for job applications. The job descriptions seem clear and concise, offering adequate information to allow a person to apply to a position there. This seems a valuable site for the museum to use in order to open itself up to those who wish to contribute to the museum through their work.

            All in all, the Boston Science Museum does an admirable job connecting to the public through various social media. Their uses are not all that unique from others, but I did quite enjoy the updates of the dinoseries in their Twitter account. Being able to get their patrons to visit their Pinterest site allows the patrons to bring science home with them and entertain their children (or themselves) with new and simple experiments and crafts they can do at home. Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest seems the best three to use for access to the general public. Information such as operation hours, exhibit schedules, and outside links are useful and interesting for the general public to explore. It seems as though they have abandoned Flickr in exchange for Instagram, but Flickr is still being advertised on their website. I’ve personally never found much use in Instagram, especially when many of the pictures on the Museum of Science’s site were on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest already, but it was interesting to see the pictures in a concise place. LinkedIn is, of course, a useful tool for professionals to use, but has little use for the general public. Even so, having it on their website ensure that those who wish to see it are able to.

            Under the Code of Ethics that can be found on the website of the Museum of Science, there is no specific section dedicated to the issue of social media. It seems to rely on the idea that staff and volunteers must respect the intellectual and physical property of the museum and maintain a sense of professionalism when discussing the museum. There is little in the entire Code of Ethics that has anything to do with the use of social media. Since they are using so many outlets, perhaps it is time to update this code and create a proper policy. Making collections and information about these collections available, as Coburn and Baca point out in their article Beyond the Gallery Walls: Tools and Methods for Leading End-Users to Collections Information, is crucial yet must be done with care. It seems the Museum of Science has little to worry about in terms of jeopardizing its industry, but perhaps a policy (or at least a policy that is shared with the public) should be put in place to avoid future disasters. It was interesting to note that the Museum of Science used nearly all of the social media that was mentioned in the article 41 Ways Museums Are Merging Social and Tech to Engage Audiences. The examples given on this site are so unique, it would be nice if the Museum of Science could come up with something as interesting to boast on their social media sites.

Works Cited

Coburn, Erin, and Murtha Baca. "Beyond the Gallery Walls: Tools and Methods for Leading End-Users to Collections Information." ASIS&T Bulletin 30.5 (2004): 1-7.

"Code of Ethics." Museum of Science. Web. 8 Nov. 2013. <http://www.mos.org/ethics>.

Dilenschneider, Colleen. "41 Ways Museums Are Merging Social and Tech to Engage Audiences." Know Your Own Bone. N.p., 18 Oct. 2010. Web. 8 Nov. 2013.

Museum of Science. (2013). Museum of Science (Facebook). Retrieved from: https://www.facebook.com/museumofscience

Museum of Science. (2013). Museum of Science (Flickr). Retrieved from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/25729481@N03/

Museum of Science. (2013). Museum of Science (Instagram). Retrieved from: http://instagram.com/museumofscience#

Museum of Science. (2013). Museum of Science (Pinterest). Retrieved from: http://www.pinterest.com/museumofscience/

Museum of Science. (2013). Museum of Science (Twitter). Retrieved from: https://twitter.com/museumofscience

Museum of Science. (2013). Museum of Science (Youtube). Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/user/BostonMOS